Basic Trope: Somebody who believes that they are good, and that makes everything they do good by default.
- Straight:
- The Lawful Stupid Tomoe, proud solder of The Empire, knows that she's one of the good guys — she's a soldier for justice! And that means she does nothing but good deeds, and punishes the baddies! Even that puppy was evil!
- Bob is a member of La Résistance, and he labels everything he doesn't like as pro-empire whether its accurate or not. This self-justification allows him to hurt innocent people without feeling any form of guilt or remorse
- Exaggerated:
- As a devoted soldier of The Empire, Tomoe is perfectly willing to Save the World by curbstomping it into submission wherever necessary, fully convinced that it's okay because she and her friends are pillars of truth and light.
- Tomoe is a villain who somehow believes herself to be both an All-Loving Hero and Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
- Bob becomes an autocratic dictator proceeds to be even worse than Hitler, even going so far as to force minorities he doesn't like into concentration camps. He still claims he's an antifascist.
- Downplayed:
- Tomoe is somewhat a good person at heart, although in a pragmatic manner. Because of this, she knows that everything she does is right, no matter how harsh her actions can be.
- Bob talks a lot about his views, but never does anything to actually help other people, spending his time lecturing people on social media. He thinks he's changing the world for the better.
- Justified:
- Tomoe was raised to believe this.
- Good is a cosmic force that is not connected to any sort of moral obligations. Furthermore, certain races and jobs (such as "soldiers for justice") are considered to be aligned to Good, and thus get to exploit this cosmic force for their own reasons. Anything these Good people do must, by definition, be Good.
- Tomoe is that crazy.
- Bob believes that he's the hero of the story.
- Inverted:
- Naoya is convinced that he is evil and everything he does is evil by default, despite all testamony and evidence to the contrary. Singlehandedly saved his hometown from The Empire? But the Imperial army had so many good soldiers forced into an aggressive war — and he had to cut them down and blast them with his magic... again! And imagine how it was for their families back in the empire! Kept everyone he knows safe? Huh, you don't know how many he couldn't keep safe — and what he feels about it! Rescued several litters of kittens from trees in my spare time? Aye, only for those kittens to grow up and kill his beloved songbirds! If only he had known it...
- Tomoe is a Tragic Villain with a Guilt Complex.
- Bob is a Card-Carrying Villain who is fully aware of his actions and never seeks to justify himself.
- Instead of Bob saying that actions are good because he does them, it's the other way around. He strives very hard to what would be the morally correct option in a situation, and has researched it long and hard, therefore, he takes certain actions because they are good.
- Bob steals credit for every act of good moral standing with the justification of "If it was a good action, I was responsible for it."
- Subverted: Despite her devotion to the cause, Tomoe balks when charged to torch the village of Bloomton. After all, even if some of them might be harboring members of La Résistance, what about all the innocents living there...?
- Double Subverted: However, she's easily convinced that everyone in Bloomton is in on the rebellion's charade, and as a guardian of justice, it's her duty to punish them—!
- Parodied:
- Any attempt to get Tomoe to face the truth is met with overly emphatic assertions that she is not evil, she is good and kind and pure and everything she does is righteous!
- Tomoe jumps up and down on babies, throws kittens off cliffs and is very upset that no one has had her sainted yet.
- "We call ourselves the Anti-Bad Guy Squad and we label our opponents the Bad Guys. How can people not understand this? We can never be terrorists because we're fighting the Bad Guys. It's so simple to understand. Everything we do is justified because of our name."
- Zig Zagged: Tomoe swings back and forth between assuming everything she does is naturally good and questioning the purity of her actions.
- Averted: When people accuse Tomoe of being evil she only agrees with them and tells them they're probably right.
- Enforced: Tomoe was created by her author as an example of what she believes are self-righteous assholes.
- Lampshaded: What the Hell, Hero?
- Invoked: From a young age, Tomoe is told by her mentor that she is inherently pure and just, and will become an unstoppable force for good in the future. He deliberately teaches her this in order to raise an unquestionably loyal soldier convinced of her moral superiority.
- Exploited: The Big Bad uses More than Mind Control on Tomoe to avoid her coming after him.
- Defied:
- Tomoe knows she's done evil and Wangsts about the Dirty Business she's had to do in the name of the greater good.
- Tomoe knows that thinking you're a good person is different than actually being a good person, so she dedicates herself to genuine heroism.
- Discussed: "Why do people praise her as a hero? She's a murderer!"
- Conversed: "Looks like the writers couldn't think of a philosophy for the villain more complicated than 'I'm right because I say I am'."
- Deconstructed: Tomoe's beliefs are the lynchpin to her sanity. Her entire identity and sense of self-worth is built around the idea that everything she does is ultimately 'good'; she simply can't second-guess herself, for fear that those insecurities and doubts will prove overwhelming. Even when confronted with seemingly undeniable proof that her actions have had terrible, evil consequences, she retreats further into denial and mental instability. Eventually, this leads to General Kaizo to put her down when she started becoming a threat to the empire's plans.
- Reconstructed: Tomoe is confronted with her evil deeds and at first has a Freak Out but ultimately dismisses those heretics who would try to undermine her beliefs and cause such doubts. They are the evil ones! They don't understand true justice!
- Played For Laughs: After destroying a village to take out a monster Tomoe asks the surviving citizens if they think she's a "great hero or the GREATEST hero?" "...I'll put you down for great."
- Played For Drama:
- Tomoe used to be good friends with Ichigo, but her Wide-Eyed Idealism was easily manipulated by General Kaizo, who has her convinced that she and the rest of the empire's forces are paragons of virtue and that her former friend has been blinded by the darkness.
- Whenever anyone tries to tell her she's evil, her response is to beat Kirk senseless and completely prove his point.
- Tomoe's moral superiority complex falls completely apart when she realizes she's in the wrong, leading her to doubt everything she ever did.
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